The National Aquarium of New Zealand reports that Inky the Octopus has escaped. The smart 8 legged creature squeezed out of a small gap at the top of his tank, slithered across the floor of the aquarium and used a sea-water runoff pipe to make his way to Hawke’s Bay, and on to freedom.

Octopus are known to be very intelligent and curious, and enjoy pushing boundaries.

If you can, imagine you’re Inky, trapped in that aquarium. You remember what it was like to be free in the ocean, and your big goal is to return to that ocean.

So you study your surroundings. You learn everything you can about the place – when the human captors are watching. When they’re not watching – where the possible escape routes are.

You notice that water always runs to that small hole in the corner. You think about that – where does the water go? Where does all water go if you’re an octopus? To the ocean, of course. And as you study the situation, you devise a plan to win your freedom.

Then when the time is right, you make a very daring and risky escape.

Remember, you don’t know for certain where that pipe goes.

You don’t know for certain you can make it to the pipe. After all, you’ll be out of your element. You won’t be able to breathe properly again until you get back into water.

You’re taking a really big chance. It would be safer to just stay in the aquarium, eat the free meals and spend the rest of your life lounging about like a lazy couch octopus.

But not you. You want more out of life.

You push up against the heavy lid on the tank and manage to just squeeze out.

You slither down the outside of the tank, across the floor through an element that is totally foreign to you – air.

You reach the pipe. Little do you know that pipe is as long as 5 football fields and full of the foulest smelling stuff you can imagine.

And yes, it is believed that Inky did indeed make it all the way back to the ocean in his daring night time escape.

Now imagine you’re an entrepreneur.

You have a big goal (or at least hopefully you do).

Just like Inky the Octopus, you study the terrain and formulate a plan. You rehearse it in your head. You know you might encounter obstacles along the way, but you have confidence that you’ll deal with those as they come up.

It’s time. You’re nervous and scared, but you’ve got the guts to go for it.

And once you launch, there is no turning back. You are now on your way to something bigger, better, scarier and a whole lot more exciting.

That sure beats watching reruns on TV or going off to a J.O.B., doesn’t it?

Lessons from Inky:

Have a big, daring goal.

Learn everything you can that will help you achieve your goal.

Formulate a strategy.

Fear is just a word. Do it anyway.

Execute your strategy like your entire future and your very life depend on it.

Can’t you just see Inky emerging from that pipe into the bay? Imagine how happy he must have been. From there it was a relatively short, joyful swim to the ocean and total freedom.

Answers ran the gamut of the spectrum, but here are 28 we found especially helpful, in completely random order…

Become financially educated. Read personal finance management books, starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad. Learn how to budget and how to invest.

Live frugally. If you’re thinking you can’t save more of your money, take a look at homeless people who live on almost nothing. Yes, you can save money. Stop eating out so often. Cancel the cable. Don’t buy a new car. Don’t buy a new used car until you absolutely need one.

Always pay yourself first. Devote the first 10-30% of your pay to savings and investments.

Spend money on assets (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.) not liabilities (everything that loses value the moment you purchase it). Thinking of buying a new car even though your old one is fine? Take that money and invest it in your business, in stocks, in real estate or something that is an asset. Then buy a good used car in a few years, when you really need one.

Don’t care what people think of you. Your neighbors think you’re poor because you don’t buy new cars? Little do they know that $20,000 you would have spent on a car is now earning you a 10% compound interest rate.

Invest in yourself. Self-education equals new knowledge. Add execution to that new knowledge and you get results. Repeat continuously.

Find ways to help as many people as possible. The more you can help others get what they want, the more money you can make.

Scale. Don’t render services when you can mass produce products. Better to make a $10 profit on a million sales than a $1,000 profit on 100 sales.

Stuck on services? Go upscale. If you’re going to render services, find the niches that pay the most.

Have multiple streams of income. This way if something happens to one, you are still in good shape overall.

Sell stuff. Lots of stuff. Hire others to help you, so that your earnings are no longer tied to your hours.

Always keep the return on investment in mind, whether your investment is time or money.

When you want to buy something, figure out how to make the money. Don’t take money out of your savings to buy a car or a vacation. Instead, figure out how to make the extra money needed to cover the new expense.

Be friends with people who have more money than you. Their mindsets and thought processes will rub off on you. That said, do not try to compete with them – keep the car and house you have now, at least for awhile.

Leverage your abilities to their fullest extent instead of working harder to get ahead. Forget working hard and focus on working smart. For example, a personal coach can create a course and sell it for $297 a million times over, but can only coach a few people one-on-one at any given time.

Take calculated risks. Failure is a part of the journey. If you’re too afraid to fail, you will never take the smart, calculated risks needed to become wealthy.

Use your head more than your heart. Make your financial decisions based on provable fact rather than gut instinct.

If you have a business, work ON it, not in it. Your labor isn’t needed to make the business a success – your ideas and leadership are.

Things like sports and entertainment are simply distractions for the masses. While you’re watching sports and shows 2-6 hours a day, the rich are making million dollar contacts, doing deals and starting businesses. If you get more of whatever you focus on – maybe it’s time to stop focusing on distractions and start focusing on your finances.

Bad decisions are better than no decisions. Any decision that moves you forward is better than total inaction. The key is make decisions quickly and work until you get results.

Confidence and belief in your ability will take you further, faster. The higher your confidence and the more you believe in what you’re doing, the easier it is to bring others on board, to convince buyers and to make money.

Having a lot of money doesn’t change life as much as you think. It’s not a magic shield from illness, tragedy or loss. You’re no smarter for having it (although perhaps wiser if you made the money yourself.) You still have problems, although they might be an entirely new set of problems. On the plus side, you never have to worry about putting food on the table or paying bills, which frees you up to think about bigger things.

People will look at you differently when you are rich. The upside is they respect you more. The downside is most people will want something from you.

It’s best to not flaunt your money, but instead put it to work to make more money. Many millionaires drive beat up cars and live in perfectly average homes. Few people know they are rich and they like it that way.

Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Rent it, borrow it or do without. And don’t carry a balance on credit cards. Ever.

Never borrow money to make discretionary purchases. Only borrow money to make money.

Start with the end in mind. If you’re starting a company, from day 1 ask yourself what to do to make your company as valuable as possible so you can one day sell it for millions.

Lastly, having money is power. Power to help any charity you choose. Power to help anybody or anyone. Power to make positive changes in your community, positively impact the lives of others and make the world a better place.

Answers ran the gamut of the spectrum, but here are 28 we found especially helpful, in completely random order…

Become financially educated. Read personal finance management books, starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad. Learn how to budget and how to invest.

Live frugally. If you’re thinking you can’t save more of your money, take a look at homeless people who live on almost nothing. Yes, you can save money. Stop eating out so often. Cancel the cable. Don’t buy a new car. Don’t buy a new used car until you absolutely need one.

Always pay yourself first. Devote the first 10-30% of your pay to savings and investments.

Spend money on assets (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.) not liabilities (everything that loses value the moment you purchase it). Thinking of buying a new car even though your old one is fine? Take that money and invest it in your business, in stocks, in real estate or something that is an asset. Then buy a good used car in a few years, when you really need one.

Don’t care what people think of you. Your neighbors think you’re poor because you don’t buy new cars? Little do they know that $20,000 you would have spent on a car is now earning you a 10% compound interest rate.

Invest in yourself. Self-education equals new knowledge. Add execution to that new knowledge and you get results. Repeat continuously.

Find ways to help as many people as possible. The more you can help others get what they want, the more money you can make.

Scale. Don’t render services when you can mass produce products. Better to make a $10 profit on a million sales than a $1,000 profit on 100 sales.

Stuck on services? Go upscale. If you’re going to render services, find the niches that pay the most.

Have multiple streams of income. This way if something happens to one, you are still in good shape overall.

Sell stuff. Lots of stuff. Hire others to help you, so that your earnings are no longer tied to your hours.

Always keep the return on investment in mind, whether your investment is time or money.

When you want to buy something, figure out how to make the money. Don’t take money out of your savings to buy a car or a vacation. Instead, figure out how to make the extra money needed to cover the new expense.

Be friends with people who have more money than you. Their mindsets and thought processes will rub off on you. That said, do not try to compete with them – keep the car and house you have now, at least for awhile.

Leverage your abilities to their fullest extent instead of working harder to get ahead. Forget working hard and focus on working smart. For example, a personal coach can create a course and sell it for $297 a million times over, but can only coach a few people one-on-one at any given time.

Take calculated risks. Failure is a part of the journey. If you’re too afraid to fail, you will never take the smart, calculated risks needed to become wealthy.

Use your head more than your heart. Make your financial decisions based on provable fact rather than gut instinct.

If you have a business, work ON it, not in it. Your labor isn’t needed to make the business a success – your ideas and leadership are.

Things like sports and entertainment are simply distractions for the masses. While you’re watching sports and shows 2-6 hours a day, the rich are making million dollar contacts, doing deals and starting businesses. If you get more of whatever you focus on – maybe it’s time to stop focusing on distractions and start focusing on your finances.

Bad decisions are better than no decisions. Any decision that moves you forward is better than total inaction. The key is make decisions quickly and work until you get results.

Confidence and belief in your ability will take you further, faster. The higher your confidence and the more you believe in what you’re doing, the easier it is to bring others on board, to convince buyers and to make money.

Having a lot of money doesn’t change life as much as you think. It’s not a magic shield from illness, tragedy or loss. You’re no smarter for having it (although perhaps wiser if you made the money yourself.) You still have problems, although they might be an entirely new set of problems. On the plus side, you never have to worry about putting food on the table or paying bills, which frees you up to think about bigger things.

People will look at you differently when you are rich. The upside is they respect you more. The downside is most people will want something from you.

It’s best to not flaunt your money, but instead put it to work to make more money. Many millionaires drive beat up cars and live in perfectly average homes. Few people know they are rich and they like it that way.

Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Rent it, borrow it or do without. And don’t carry a balance on credit cards. Ever.

Never borrow money to make discretionary purchases. Only borrow money to make money.

Start with the end in mind. If you’re starting a company, from day 1 ask yourself what to do to make your company as valuable as possible so you can one day sell it for millions.

Lastly, having money is power. Power to help any charity you choose. Power to help anybody or anyone. Power to make positive changes in your community, positively impact the lives of others and make the world a better place.

Do you have what it takes to succeed in your own online business? You do if you have the following qualities…

You’re relentlessly persistent. When you decide to do something, you tenaciously work towards that goal until it is completed, no matter what.

You’re realistically optimistic. You know that believing you’ll grow wings and fly won’t make it true. But you also know there is a method by which you can fly, and you’ll keeping believing this until you find a way to do it.

You take failures in stride. Yes, you did all you could, but you failed anyway. But you realize this is just part of the success process. So instead of lamenting the loss, you ask yourself, “What’s great about this?” And you take what you learned and apply it to your next attempt.

Your face is in the dictionary under the word “self-improvement.” While some people think learning ends with graduation, not you. You are continuously reading and learning more and more, and putting what you learn into practice.

You take action. Planning is a necessary part of the process, but you know that nothing happens until you take action.

You keep an open mind. You realize you don’t have all the answers, and you’re willing to listen to others to find the answers you seek.

You maximize your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Some folks think they need to work on their weaknesses – not you. If you’re not good at something, you’re smart enough to outsource it. Instead, you focus your efforts where they shine, and that’s what makes you and your business successful.

You’re ambitious. Sure, you could settle for a small online business that just covers the bills. But instead you’re looking to create a real business you can sell in 5-7 years for 7 or 8 figures. Shoot for the clouds and you might only hit the rooftops. But shoot for the stars and you’ll at least hit the moon, which is pretty darn good.

You set goals. You can’t get someplace if you don’t know where you’re going, so you set goals to keep yourself moving and on track.

You spend 90% of your time on the present, 10% on the future, and no time on the past. The past is over and done. Childhood was lousy? Didn’t get into the school you wanted? Passed over for that promotion? First business failed? No matter because it’s ancient history. You’re all about what you can accomplish right here, right now, with an occasional eye to the future.

You delight in delaying gratification. Sure, you could watch TV right now, but you know there is a bigger reward to be had down the road if you just keep working instead.

You don’t listen to naysayers. There’s always somebody ready to tell you that you can’t do it, you shouldn’t do it or you’re an idiot for trying. But you just smile, say thanks for the advice and keep on doing what you need to do to be successful.

After all, the best revenge on naysayers is success.

And if you have at least 8 of these 12 qualities, you’re almost certainly going to meet with success on a grand scale, and soon.

Before they share it, readers have to love your content. So how do you write the next viral blogpost?

1. Offer a simple, practical way of accomplishing a task. According to the New York Times, 94 percent of people share content because they believe it will be helpful to others. That’s why articles such as “10 Ways to Save Money” are popular.

2. Write “how to” posts. These kinds of posts are always popular and tend to stay evergreen for a long time. For example, few can resist, “How to Make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever.”

3. Give them what they want. Figure out what your readers want to learn and write about that.

4. Use the active voice as much as possible. Instead of writing, “Donna is loved by Richie,” write “Richie loves Donna.” It’s easier, faster and more interesting to read.

5. Use present tense as much as possible. Instead of writing, “Last week when we were going down the mountain…” Write, “Imagine this: We’re going down the mountain when a cougar leaps in front of our motorcycle…” It puts the reader right there in the scene with you and makes it more exciting to read.

6. Entertain the reader. If you can delight the reader, make your content irresistible and even bring humor to it, so much the better.

7. Be credible. If you can back up what you write, your readers will trust your content enough to share it.

8. Cut the fat. It’s not the length of your content that matters, it’s the conciseness. Tighten up your sentences, rewrite anything that confuses, eliminate words like “very” and “just” and basically tighten up your writing. Every word should count.

9. It’s not War and Peace. Use shorter lines instead of longer sentences whenever possible.

10. Engage the reader emotionally. It’s not just about the facts, it’s also about grabbing the reader by the emotions and not letting them go until the end.

11. Tell stories. If you can illustrate your point through a story, do it.

12. Never, ever be boring. Have someone read your content before you post it. Ask them to watch for any place where their mind starts to wander. These are the places you’ll need to work on, so you don’t lose your reader’s attention.

If you find yourself writing in a style your English professor would adore, try again. The best tip of all to getting your content shared is to write as though you’re talking to your best friend, sharing useful stuff they want to know.

No, I’m not suggesting you sell on Etsy. At least, not in this example.

But you can use Etsy to make a very nice, ongoing income through drop shipping. And you won’t even need to pay for your products until you produce sales.

You can drive traffic through valuable content, or you can simply purchase Facebook ads and then optimize them for the maximum return on your investment.

Think of it as building a money machine. You put in 50 cents of advertising, you take a dollar out. Then you tweak your machine to produce that dollar on only 25 cents of advertising, and then you rinse and repeat.

Here’s how:

Spend an hour or two researching on Etsy. You are looking for products that that are selling well and appear to be massively underpriced.

You can tell how popular a product is by the number of times it’s been favorited as well as the number of times it’s been reviewed.

You’re not looking for well known, branded items because the competition on those is too fierce and the profits are too low. Instead, you’re looking for unique white-label products that show well.

Look for products priced well below what you would consider paying for them. High value and low price means there is an opportunity there for you to exploit.

And of course it must be an item that the seller can continually supply to you, whether they are creating the item themselves or drop shipping. One-of-a-kind items won’t work.

Promoting the items you choose off of Etsy is going to give you an advantage. You won’t be limited by Etsy’s platform and user base.

And you can retarget, bringing prospects back to your item for a second viewing.

Remember, it often takes seeing a product more than once to convince a prospect to become a buyer.

Once you find items that appear underpriced and are doing well, you can check Alibaba to see if they are drop shipping, and if so, how much they are paying. You can then go straight through Alibaba, if you choose.

Or if you prefer to go through the Etsy seller, or it’s an item the Etsy seller is making, then you’ll need to contact them.

Your email might read:

Hi, I’m __ and I run online e-commerce stores. I love your Etsy store, and I especially like the ___ product. I am interested in selling it from my store – would you be interested in supplying me?

I’m looking for a drop shipping arrangement. Basically, when I make a sale I’ll email you with the customer’s info, and you’ll ship it directly to them for me.

Please let me know if you’re interested and we’ll work out the details.

Categories of items to look for:

Bath and body products – These are generally made by the Etsy sellers themselves, and they can often be purchased cheaply and sold for a very large markup. For example, you might sell a $3 item for $10-$15.

Jewelry – again, the markup on jewelry is potentialy very large. Look for items targeted to certain groups of people. For example, jewelry with cats on it for cat lovers, jewelry for fans of sports teams, personalized jewelry for young girls, etc.

Household items – beautiful clocks, artwork, candle holders, etc.

Novelty items – this could be anything that is extremely eye-catching in the photos. For example, there is a product called Fairy Dust in a Bottle. The bottle of ‘fairy dust’ lights up, and it sells like hotcakes. Show a great photo of this on Facebook to the right target market, and odds are you’ll do extremely well.

Anything that presents really well in a photograph, is underpriced and in demand is a good choice. It’s better to choose products that are colorful or eye-catching in some way. As they say, the right photo is worth a thousand words.

One last note: Keep strict track of your math. If you’ve got a $10 margin on a product, and it’s costing you $5 of advertising per sale, then it’s simply a matter of scaling up the advertising to make more money. 20 sales a day would be $100 in profit per day and $700 profit per week.

See if you can adjust your targeting and your advertising to do even better.

Then find more products and repeat the process.

This is a really easy way to make good money online in your spare time.

And anyone can do it. It just takes some research and legwork, as well as a good knowledge of Facebook ads to make a profitable success from it.